The impending arrival of BlackBerry 10 has led to plenty of leaks and rumors about what's on the horizon for RIM. Boy Genius Report has managed to snag a couple photos of what the site claims is the final golden master of BlackBerry 10 running on a BlackBerry Z10 handset, as well as a heap of photos of the phone's operating system, including a walkthrough of the gestures tutorial. The photos also feature a look at RIM's voice recognition engine, the handset's NFC capabilities, and a closer look at the BlackBerry Hub, which gives users a glimpse at all of their e-mail accounts, messages, and social networking notifications.

Earlier this month, we went hands-on with RIM's new mobile operating system at CES 2013. BlackBerry 10 features a mostly gesture-based interface and a virtual keyboard that is aesthetically fashioned after the company's iconic keyboard hardware.

There have been rumors that RIM may offer the BlackBerry Z10 handset for less than the anticipated $199 price point.

Be sure to check back with Ars on January 30 for our own coverage of the official BlackBerry 10 event.

Florence Ion
Florence was a former Reviews Editor at Ars, with a focus on Android, gadgets, and essential gear. She received a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University and lives in the Bay Area.

I vote for keeping RIM around (and hopefully flourishing) so Google and Apple don't slow down the pace of innovation.

I think there's another company you're forgetting about that has its hat in the Mobile ring. One with over 80 billion dollars in the bank and is still making money hand over fist every quarter. Begins with an 'M', rhymes with Sicromoft...

That's just the number of months until RIM is out of business. *high fives all around*

Why? Other than trolling, I fail to see what might be gained by loosing a technology company, reducing competition, and having people out of a job.

While a business failing is nothing to celebrate, it is just that, business. RIM had the market by the snarglies, and has, through a series of poor business decisions, left themselves vulnerable to failure. What RIM's (possible) collapse may provide is a warning to other companies that already have favorable marketshare. How many "Maps" moments can Apple afford to have? How many ME's can MS have? If the market still has a place for RIM, then RIM will survive. If not, then RIM just isn't sustainable as a company anymore. Their talent and IP will get absorbed by the players that remain, for better or worse.

RIM can't survive on hopes. Those that wish for RIM's survival better go out and buy Blackberries. Not an easy sell, is it?

That's just the number of months until RIM is out of business. *high fives all around*

Why? Other than trolling, I fail to see what might be gained by loosing a technology company, reducing competition, and having people out of a job.

While a business failing is nothing to celebrate, it is just that, business. RIM had the market by the snarglies, and has, through a series of poor business decisions, left themselves vulnerable to failure. What RIM's (possible) collapse may provide is a warning to other companies that already have favorable marketshare. How many "Maps" moments can Apple afford to have? How many ME's can MS have? If the market still has a place for RIM, then RIM will survive. If not, then RIM just isn't sustainable as a company anymore. Their talent and IP will get absorbed by the players that remain, for better or worse.

RIM can't survive on hopes. Those that wish for RIM's survival better go out and buy Blackberries. Not an easy sell, is it?

I've got mine on pre-order. It was a pretty easy sell. 90 or 100 million customers is nothing to scoff at.

Worst case scenario is that someone will borg them. Their tech will still be around if that happens.

I have a work Blackberry. The only reason I don't have a work i-Phone is that the carrier I am on doesn't do i-phones. There are only a few at work still on Blackberry, and I am sure management would like to get rid of the BES. BTW, we were a Blackberry shop until the executives decided they liked the shiny of Apple.

RIM still offers a lot in terms of security with BES. Time will tell if the new OS and hardware will be enough to bring back some of the corporate and government sector customers they lost recently. A lot of their former customers have switched to a BYOD policy. Once users load all their favorite apps, subscribe to a cloud service, add all their contacts, etc, it is hard to convince them that a platform change is a good idea.

I vote for keeping RIM around (and hopefully flourishing) so Google and Apple don't slow down the pace of innovation.

So are you assuming then that MS has failed in the phone space? I'm not necessarily saying you're wrong but to me anything RIM will do seems to be less of an influence than what MS does. Maybe I'm wrong.

I vote for keeping RIM around (and hopefully flourishing) so Google and Apple don't slow down the pace of innovation.

I think there's another company you're forgetting about that has its hat in the Mobile ring. One with over 80 billion dollars in the bank and is still making money hand over fist every quarter. Begins with an 'M', rhymes with Sicromoft...

pw38 wrote:

Uxorious wrote:

I vote for keeping RIM around (and hopefully flourishing) so Google and Apple don't slow down the pace of innovation.

So are you assuming then that MS has failed in the phone space? I'm not necessarily saying you're wrong but to me anything RIM will do seems to be less of an influence than what MS does. Maybe I'm wrong.

Solidstate89 and pw38 are both correct, there are other players in the mobile market including Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, HTC, etc. The focus of my comment was not to indicate winners/losers, but to point out that it would be a shame to see RIM leave the market. It is fantastic to see Microsoft coming out with competitive options to the Google/Apple hegemony in mobile OS, so more power to all competition!

I vote for keeping RIM around (and hopefully flourishing) so Google and Apple don't slow down the pace of innovation.

I think there's another company you're forgetting about that has its hat in the Mobile ring. One with over 80 billion dollars in the bank and is still making money hand over fist every quarter. Begins with an 'M', rhymes with Sicromoft...

Microsoft doesn't have close to 80 billion in the bank, more like 15-20 billion.

That's just the number of months until RIM is out of business. *high fives all around*

Why? Other than trolling, I fail to see what might be gained by loosing a technology company, reducing competition, and having people out of a job.

While a business failing is nothing to celebrate, it is just that, business. RIM had the market by the snarglies, and has, through a series of poor business decisions, left themselves vulnerable to failure. What RIM's (possible) collapse may provide is a warning to other companies that already have favorable marketshare. How many "Maps" moments can Apple afford to have? How many ME's can MS have? If the market still has a place for RIM, then RIM will survive. If not, then RIM just isn't sustainable as a company anymore. Their talent and IP will get absorbed by the players that remain, for better or worse.

RIM can't survive on hopes. Those that wish for RIM's survival better go out and buy Blackberries. Not an easy sell, is it?

I've got mine on pre-order. It was a pretty easy sell. 90 or 100 million customers is nothing to scoff at.

Worst case scenario is that someone will borg them. Their tech will still be around if that happens.

Go RIM go !.

The ridiculous of numbers on this page is criminal, there aren't close to 100 million, or even 80 million preorders for any device ever manufactured, let-alone a blackberry.

Also, you might want to look into your grammar "Go RIM go !." isn't proper english, there's no space between the last letter and the punctuation, and exclamation points are used IN LEIU of a period.

I vote for keeping RIM around (and hopefully flourishing) so Google and Apple don't slow down the pace of innovation.

I think there's another company you're forgetting about that has its hat in the Mobile ring. One with over 80 billion dollars in the bank and is still making money hand over fist every quarter. Begins with an 'M', rhymes with Sicromoft...

The problem Microsoft has is that it develops functionality for Windows Phone on the mistaken assumption that they are the market leader.

Data Sense is great but requires telco development. Unless the telco getting a huge kickback from Microsoft, that's a lot of development for a tiny percentage of users and the business case just won't work.

Rooms is equally great but no iOS or Android clients means that the vast majority of WP8 users will be stuck in a room on their own because none of their friends or family has Windows Phone.

I really hope RIM does well. I really loved how well BlackBerry handled contacts from application to application; superfluous. If you've owned a BlackBerry and any other device and have used them for emailing, calling, messaging, et al. then you know what I mean. I think their physical design gimped it, a small screen, paltry RAM, even wasted space on a navigation button, menu button and phone buttons that could be integrated into a larger screen? My last BB was the Bold 9700, when I saw the specs on the 9900 I decided to go Android.

I vote for keeping RIM around (and hopefully flourishing) so Google and Apple don't slow down the pace of innovation.

I think there's another company you're forgetting about that has its hat in the Mobile ring. One with over 80 billion dollars in the bank and is still making money hand over fist every quarter. Begins with an 'M', rhymes with Sicromoft...

pw38 wrote:

Uxorious wrote:

I vote for keeping RIM around (and hopefully flourishing) so Google and Apple don't slow down the pace of innovation.

So are you assuming then that MS has failed in the phone space? I'm not necessarily saying you're wrong but to me anything RIM will do seems to be less of an influence than what MS does. Maybe I'm wrong.

Solidstate89 and pw38 are both correct, there are other players in the mobile market including Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, HTC, etc. The focus of my comment was not to indicate winners/losers, but to point out that it would be a shame to see RIM leave the market. It is fantastic to see Microsoft coming out with competitive options to the Google/Apple hegemony in mobile OS, so more power to all competition!

Indeed I'm all for more competition. I've never been an Apple fan but can appreciate what they bring to the table. Same for Android. I am a WP fan but am realistic about their situation and hope they can do what it takes to be a solid competitor to those two. I've owned several BB's in the past and I really had no issue at all with them but then again that was really before the current smart phone craze started. Since then it seems they've stagnated quite a bit but here's hoping BB 10 can introduce enough to be competitive and make the other players do more to openly innovate and compete. I don't see why there can't be four solid platforms. I doubt it will happen but then again I thought Motorola was going to stay king of the world with the Razr. Anything is possible I guess.

I vote for keeping RIM around (and hopefully flourishing) so Google and Apple don't slow down the pace of innovation.

I think there's another company you're forgetting about that has its hat in the Mobile ring. One with over 80 billion dollars in the bank and is still making money hand over fist every quarter. Begins with an 'M', rhymes with Sicromoft...

The problem Microsoft has is that it develops functionality for Windows Phone on the mistaken assumption that they are the market leader.

Doesn't matter. The point I was making is that RIM isn't the only other competitor capable of "keeping Apple and Google in line" when it comes to continuing to innovate and iterate on their mobile products. Microsoft will keep pushing Windows Phone until they get a foothold, just like did with the Xbox; and unlike RIM, they've got the money to do so.

That's just the number of months until RIM is out of business. *high fives all around*

Why? Other than trolling, I fail to see what might be gained by loosing a technology company, reducing competition, and having people out of a job.

While a business failing is nothing to celebrate, it is just that, business. RIM had the market by the snarglies, and has, through a series of poor business decisions, left themselves vulnerable to failure. What RIM's (possible) collapse may provide is a warning to other companies that already have favorable marketshare. How many "Maps" moments can Apple afford to have? How many ME's can MS have? If the market still has a place for RIM, then RIM will survive. If not, then RIM just isn't sustainable as a company anymore. Their talent and IP will get absorbed by the players that remain, for better or worse.

RIM can't survive on hopes. Those that wish for RIM's survival better go out and buy Blackberries. Not an easy sell, is it?

I've got mine on pre-order. It was a pretty easy sell. 90 or 100 million customers is nothing to scoff at.

Worst case scenario is that someone will borg them. Their tech will still be around if that happens.

Go RIM go !.

The ridiculous of numbers on this page is criminal, there aren't close to 100 million, or even 80 million preorders for any device ever manufactured, let-alone a blackberry.

Also, you might want to look into your grammar "Go RIM go !." isn't proper english, there's no space between the last letter and the punctuation, and exclamation points are used IN LEIU of a period.

Sorry about the numbers. I meant 80-100 million exsiting subscribers. Not all of them will pre-order of course. But some will for sure. I suspect that BB users are pretty loyal - like me and I suspect that the numbers will be pretty good.

As for the "proper english" - its not relavant anymore with moblie phones - U understand :-P .

All gestures have to start at the edge of the glass? Sounds like a pain in the ass. Seriously, Blackberry 10 won't save shit, it'll merely postpone the inevitable, over the hype.

Reading comprehension fail. The slide says "The following gestures..." not all of them. WebOS did that for some gestures too. One of them was to swipe up from off the screen to get a task list, which this looks like it's borrowing.

Doesn't matter. The point I was making is that RIM isn't the only other competitor capable of "keeping Apple and Google in line" when it comes to continuing to innovate and iterate on their mobile products. Microsoft will keep pushing Windows Phone until they get a foothold, just like did with the Xbox; and unlike RIM, they've got the money to do so.

True, although with their current YoY growth that's a lot of money and a lot of years.

My point was that they might actually have a chance of upping their market share (and keeping Apple and Google in line) if they concentrated on coming up with functionality that actually encourage people to buy Windows Phone - rather than coming up with interesting products that can only work if the world+dog also owns a Windows Phone.

That's just the number of months until RIM is out of business. *high fives all around*

Why? Other than trolling, I fail to see what might be gained by loosing a technology company, reducing competition, and having people out of a job.

There are a lot of resources being consumed at RIM. If the result of all that consumption isn't something that people want then we should be investing those resources elsewhere.

I'm not sure I'd go with "high fives all around," but the harsh truth is that the world will be a better place if RIM fails sooner rather than later (assuming they're going to fail) and those resources go toward making something that people will want.

All gestures have to start at the edge of the glass? Sounds like a pain in the ass. Seriously, Blackberry 10 won't save shit, it'll merely postpone the inevitable, over the hype.

Reading comprehension fail. The slide says "The following gestures..." not all of them. WebOS did that for some gestures too. One of them was to swipe up from off the screen to get a task list, which this looks like it's borrowing.

That's just the number of months until RIM is out of business. *high fives all around*

Why? Other than trolling, I fail to see what might be gained by loosing a technology company, reducing competition, and having people out of a job.

There are a lot of resources being consumed at RIM. If the result of all that consumption isn't something that people want then we should be investing those resources elsewhere.

I'm not sure I'd go with "high fives all around," but the harsh truth is that the world will be a better place if RIM fails sooner rather than later (assuming they're going to fail) and those resources go toward making something that people will want.

What? So, if RIM fails, your conclusion will be that they shouldn't have tried in the first place? That seems awefully pessimistic.

Nice to see BB10 getting some good press out there, people seem hungry for innovation in their smartphone UI, and BB10 is pretty darn slick. Looking forward to January 30th!

And no, Microsoft is not really innovating with live tiles, they were called widgets in their prior incarnation A gesture based OS like BB10 makes WAY more of a difference in your everyday ease of getting things done on a phone. And yes I have used one, not the final version, but it was very fast and efficient.

Nice to see BB10 getting some good press out there, people seem hungry for innovation in their smartphone UI, and BB10 is pretty darn slick. Looking forward to January 30th!

And no, Microsoft is not really innovating with live tiles, they were called gadgets in their prior incarnation A gesture based OS like BB10 makes WAY more of a difference in your everyday ease of getting things done on a phone. And yes I have used one, not the final version, but it was very fast and efficient.

I never understood why people thought live tiles was this big innovation. It's basically android widgets without the ability to freely style them.

I've got mine on pre-order. It was a pretty easy sell. 90 or 100 million customers is nothing to scoff at.

Worst case scenario is that someone will borg them. Their tech will still be around if that happens.

Go RIM go !.

Wow. Do you by chance live in Waterloo, Canada?

I live in Ottawa. I have friends that work at RIM and I've seen the BB10 device in person and have played with it. So it wasn't a hard sell. Besides all that, I have experience with QNX for many years before RIM acquired it. I was always impressed with QNX ever since I saw the QNX Floppy demo featuring a unix system with gui and browser all on a 1.44MB floppy disk. This was around 1998 and it was super fast on really crappy x86 hardware.

The ridiculous of numbers on this page is criminal, there aren't close to 100 million, or even 80 million preorders for any device ever manufactured, let-alone a blackberry.

Also, you might want to look into your grammar "Go RIM go !." isn't proper english, there's no space between the last letter and the punctuation, and exclamation points are used IN LEIU of a period.

Maybe you should look into your grammar. Quotes should be preceded with commas or colons, 'English' should be capitalized, 'in lieu' isn't capitalized (and capitalizing is not a standard method of emphasizing). I won't even get started on your first sentence.

I've got mine on pre-order. It was a pretty easy sell. 90 or 100 million customers is nothing to scoff at.

Worst case scenario is that someone will borg them. Their tech will still be around if that happens.

Go RIM go !.

Wow. Do you by chance live in Waterloo, Canada?

I live in Ottawa. I have friends that work at RIM and I've seen the BB10 device in person and have played with it. So it wasn't a hard sell. Besides all that, I have experience with QNX for many years before RIM acquired it. I was always impressed with QNX ever since I saw the QNX Floppy demo featuring a unix system with gui and browser all on a 1.44MB floppy disk. This was around 1998 and it was super fast on really crappy x86 hardware.

I downloaded and installed that QNX demo as well, it was cool tech at the time for sure. Of course running the GEOS GUI OS on my Commodore 64 was way cooler, if a lot slower Way before RIM bought them QNX was doing cool stuff, I'm just a big fan of innovation and good engineering/programming so glad they have found a good home with Blackberry. RIM has really flicked the switch moving from an old school Java JVM for an OS to a quick and efficient one. Should be fun to watch what they can do with it.

Microkernels, like QNX, aren't exactly known for their efficiency but their realtime attributes (QNX is rated SIL 3), so I wouldn't expect particularly good battery life but I would expect, depending on how well the stack above works, excellent response times.

That's just the number of months until RIM is out of business. *high fives all around*

Why? Other than trolling, I fail to see what might be gained by loosing a technology company, reducing competition, and having people out of a job.

There are a lot of resources being consumed at RIM. If the result of all that consumption isn't something that people want then we should be investing those resources elsewhere.

I'm not sure I'd go with "high fives all around," but the harsh truth is that the world will be a better place if RIM fails sooner rather than later (assuming they're going to fail) and those resources go toward making something that people will want.

What? So, if RIM fails, your conclusion will be that they shouldn't have tried in the first place? That seems awefully pessimistic.

I'm not saying they shouldn't try. But as far as I can tell they're making a "me too" product which isn't going to cut it. They're dieing a slow death, propelled on by the "buy in" they currently own, which is ever decreasing.

If they were making something different, really different, it'd be a different story. In fact that's what I'm arguing for. These resources should be diverted from saving this sinking ship and starting a new ship. Maybe that could happen at RIM instead of RIM going through bankruptcy and the talent going somewhere else. But that's a problem since the current enterprise is built on subscription fees.

I've got mine on pre-order. It was a pretty easy sell. 90 or 100 million customers is nothing to scoff at.

Yes, but those 80-100 million people are not transportable. RIM isn't continuing the classic JDE in BB10 (so apps won't transport), and even if they did a huge chunk of those are OS5/6 and/or Curve users who are near-featurephone level.

About the only life-preserver inherent in the existing user base is BBM, and even that's not a sure thing.

I don't mean to say I want them to fail: if BB10 continues the PlayBook's performance (it's very responsive, especially compared to contemporary Android tablets like the Xoom, and even bests some current ones) and user experience (I find myself trying PlayBook-style swipe gestures on my Android devices; it really is very intuitive) it'll garner some fans, but that user base is about as much help as Microsoft's WM user base is to WP8.

Me, I'm holding out for the hardware-keyboard-equipped X10. It's a revelation ever time I use a 9900 Bold; that keyboard is just exquisite.

All gestures have to start at the edge of the glass? Sounds like a pain in the ass. Seriously, Blackberry 10 won't save shit, it'll merely postpone the inevitable, over the hype.

On the PlayBook, the gestures start in the bezel (which is glass, but not display area). It actually works really well; I find myself trying to use them on non-PlayBook devices:Swipe up from the bottom to wakeSwipe down from the top to pull down a menu in the appSwipe left or right to switch between running appsSwipe diagonally inward from the upper-right to bring down the system menu barSwipe diagonally inward from the lower-left to show the keyboard

The PlayBook's bezel makes it much more workable than similar gestures on Android. The first three are pretty intuitive, but you need to know they're there---there's a tutorial and see-through sticker, but on the shelves at Best Buy or whatever they (PlayBooks) are kind of an enigma.

The gotcha is if there's enough bezel on the Z10 and X10 to make these feasible. On the PlayBook they're easy, but on a phone, and especially a phone in a third-party case, it's going to be a challenge at best and outright frustrating at worst.